126 BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 



of the objects immediately around us. We are then pre- 

 pared to hear the least sound that pervades our retreat. 

 Some of the sweetest notes ever uttered in the wood are 

 distinctly heard only at such times ; for when we are 

 passing over the rustling leaves, the noise made by our 

 progress interferes with the perfect recognition of all 

 delicate sounds. It was when thus reclining, after half 

 a day's search for flowers, under the grateful shade of a 

 pine-tree, now watching the white clouds that sent a 

 brighter daybeam into those dark recesses as they passed 

 luminously overhead ; then noting the peculiar mapping 

 of the ground underneath' the wood, diversified with mosses 

 in swelling knolls, little islets of fern, and parterres of 

 ginsengs and Solomon's-seals, I was first greeted by the 

 pensive note of the Green Warbler, as he seemed to utter 

 in supplicating tones, very slowly modulated, Hear me, 

 St. Theresa ! This strain, as I have observed many times 

 since, is at certain hours repeated constantly for ten 

 minutes at a time ; and it is one of those melodious 

 sounds that seem to belong exclusively to solitude. 



Though these notes of the Green Warbler may be 

 familiar to all who are accustomed to strolling in the 

 wood, the bird is known to but few persons. Some 

 birds of this species are constant residents during summer 

 in the woods of Eastern Massachusetts, but the greater 

 number retire farther north in the breeding season. Nut- 

 tall remarks of the Green Warbler : " His simple, rather 

 drawling, and somewhat plaintive song, uttered at short 

 intervals, resembles the syllables te, cle, deritsea, pro- 

 nounced pretty loud and slow, the tones proceeding from 

 high to low. In the intervals, he was particularly busied 

 in catching small cynips and other kinds of flies, keeping 

 up a smart snapping of his bill, almost similar to the 

 noise made by knocking pebbles together." 



There is a plaintive expression in this musical suppli- 



